World Pinhole Day is coming up on April 29th. So, if you’ve been thinking about taking part, and want to do it digitally, but aren’t sure how then this one’s for you. Brought to us by Matt Coakley at Blue Mantle Films, this video walks us through the process from start to finish. It’s a very simple process, and the whole video’s only a minute and a half long. Easy to do, and costs pretty much nothing.

A few days ago, my boyfriend found some old 35mm negatives. I really wanted to see baby photos of him, so I was wondering: can I “scan” these films with just my DSLR and the stuff I had lying around? I’ve never done it before, neither with a proper scanner nor by improvising. So, I gave it a shot and after some DIY solutions, improvisation and lots of fun – I did it. I’ll share my process with you in this article. So, if you have some old negatives and some free time, take a look.

Charging batteries is a pain in the backside. I remember when I used to shoot events with four Nikon SB-900 speedlights with SD-9 packs attached to each of them. That was 96 AA batteries I had to charge up the night before every event. Boy am I glad that more and more lights are switching to Lithium Ion now. Fewer batteries, and more pops per charge.

But even today, I still have a lot of batteries and devices to charge. There’s a dozen Nikon EN-EL15, another dozen Nikon EN-EL14, three tablets, three phones, Godox PB960 packs, the Godox A1, several USB power banks, gimbal batteries, drone batteries and a bunch of other stuff I haven’t listed. The trick is to get organised, and in this video from the folks over at FStoppers, we see how they organise their charging.

Foamcore are an incredible asset for work inside and outside the studio, but there is always the question of mounting them. One way is using a reflector arm and another is holding them with pony clamps, there is even a DIY holding solution.

This is one of the coolest DIY camera rigs I’ve seen in quite a while. Created by Chad Bredahl at Krotoflik, the oRIGami camera system is made up of inexpensive camera accessories you might already own. If not, most of them are quite cheap to acquire (under $100 in total if you’re smart). It’s a versatile system that switches from shoulder rig to dolly to fig rig to a whole bunch of other things.

There are so many different ways to mount a camera for overhead shots. But it always surprises me both how many people don’t know how they can do it, and whenever a video shows another method. We’ve posted about plenty of DIY options in the past for building fancy rigs, but this one utilises gear you probably already have.

Peter McKinnon’s recent video taking apart his Canon 1DX Mark II required an overhead shot. He wanted to be able to show the camera what he could see while he was doing it. So, he came up with this solution. All you need is a light stand, a boom arm, and a ball head.

Ever wondered how you can create volumetric lighting and light rays in both your stills and video? Well in this blog post and video I will show you how to create them the practical way using just card, smoke and light, and it’s great fun!

This is probably one of the silliest, but practical, DIY sound recording options I’ve seen. This 2 minute video from YouTuber Thru Art shows us how we can build own own sound booth for recording voiceovers using items from around our homes. It actually doesn’t sound that bad, although you might look like you’re trying to build a tent in the living room.

Clinton Lofthouse is a Photographer, Retoucher and Digital Artist based in the United Kingdom, who specialises in creative retouching and composites. Proud 80's baby, reader of graphic novels and movie geek!
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